Always in the mood of exploring, I took some new routes today and ran in the MOST GOD-AWFUL PAVEMENT I've seen in years... outside of construction zones anyway. Sometimes sticking to the familiar path is a smart idea. :)

A little plastic piece on my cyclocomputer mounting bracket snapped, so I don't know my distances or speeds anymore - and miss them. I took a really fast tight corner today.. thought I'd crash but made it. Fun stuff. Now I have to get a replacement bracket and rewire the whole darn thing... UGH!

The weather is amazing today and has been for a while. As someone said to me today, "I love this whole global warming thing." :D Although global warming is a really worrisome concept as a whole, I don't particularly miss subzero temperatures. :)

Yes Scott, it was cold this morning, especially by the Guadalupe River Trial in San Jose. The minute I hit the trail and rode along the river, the temp dropped. I was warm though. Came up on 2 guys jogging: one was in shorts, no head gear or nothing! Now who's crazy! Tomorrow supposed to be colder.

Best ride in a long time. My cold (that I've had for a month) is gone. Tonight I really kicked my own butt but it was great... I could actually breath. Snowstorm on the way for Colorado so the next couple days might be interesting.

I'm very energized from my ride. Hopefully I can go to bed!

I took the bus today!

A friend was visiting and needed to get downtown so we took the bus in together. We used coins on the way in much to the dismay of the bus driver and our impatient fellow travellers.

For the ride home I went high tech. They've started with the new Charlie ticket system here in Boston and I was a total idiot making use of it. Took me an embarassingly long time to figure out "stored value" vs. "1 to 7 Day pass" ( wouldn't a 7 day pass have a "stored value"?) then the diagram of how to insert my debit card seemed impossible to translate into 3 dimensions. Eventually I managed and headed out to where I remembered the bus left from only to discover that since the last time I've taken a bus home it has changed. After a 2 block sprint (during which I dropped my cell phone and may have lost the spare set of keys I'd loaned my friend) I caught the bus only to be stymied as I boarded by how to insert the Charlie ticket.

I was astounded to see virtually 3/4's of the bus passengers with their heads in a book, magazine or newspaper- I felt like such an oddball having no reading material.

I read over the shoulder of the guy in front of me, who was reading an advertising industry magazine. The article was about how NY, Chicago, Boston and LA were losing advertising dollars to overseas firms in cities like Amsterdam who specialize in cutting edge advertising campaigns:

"Why Amsterdam? The city's openness and bicycle-to-work lifestyle help attract talent...*

Edit: *googled the phrase- it was BusinessWeek

weird thing about bike commuting: it seems like it makes me very confused about whether or not i'm sick. felt darn-near certain i was last night, went to bed, slept right through my alarm and into almost 11 am, leapt up, biked to work . . . cut to me in the elevator with a confused face, saying 'wasn't i dying about an hour ago?' then about 6 hours later the effects of the bike ride wear off, i start dying again, just in time to ride home . . .

wow is this ever the darkest week of the year. i'm feeling it like you wouldn't believe. 11:40 and i'm riding through what looks like dusk towards a thin edge of what looks like sunrise on the far horizon at the edge of the clouds even though the 'sun' is 'overhead' behind all those clouds; 8:30 and i'm on my way home and in spite of streetlights it's darker than it ever gets any other week of the year - as dark as the devil's inside waistcoat-pocket. come on solstice! i neeeeeeeed you out here!

other than that, nothing exciting really. it's just hard to believe any of life is really happening when it all takes place in this kind of crepuscular gloom. i think they should just plain cancel the third week of december entirely. declare it national hibernation week or something.

Ok, here it is. My last commute to work for the year (also my last work day of the year-Woo Hoo!!!) Ended up with 46 days of commuting totalling slight more than 1200 miles. Less days/distance than in recent years, but since I spent 7 weeks traveling for work, and another 4 weeks off the bike due to a shoulder injury I'm fairly pleased with those numbers.

Ride in was very nice, ~40F. My face got a little chilly on the downhills. Had a headwind from the North which is fairly unusual around here before sunrise stirs up the atmosphere. Hoping it makes for a nice tailwind home.

Upper 20Fs and a dusting of snow. I saw a bike track in the snow, so there's another winter commuter(?) out there somewhere. No wind to speak of. I made good time.

Ok, I'll admit it. I am a slacker today. Too much Christmas partying Sunday night and birthday partying last night. Wrong food and drink choices led to two nights of tossing and turning and not enough sleep, so I caged it today. :eek: I'll repent tomorrow and ride. I promise. :p

Yesterday was my last commute of the year. I'll be working remotely for the remainder of the month both at home and in Toronto over the holidays. For the year, I commuted by bike 179 days. YTD mileage is just over 2500 miles, although I'll probably add to that since I'm bringing my bike with me. Commuting miles probably contributed less than 800 miles.

Weather was about the same as yesterday (16F, minimal wind). No problems. I ditched my worthless balaclava and went back to the REI skull cap, which works great. Added some bubble wrap to the helmet straps around my ears. Ghetto biking :).

:rolleyes: :D

http://www.orgear.com/home/style/83845 :)

Ron, in case you check BF during the day today, Happy Holidays to you and yours! I hope the shoulder heals well. Maybe in the new year I'll be over on your part of campus and can say hello sometime. (There's a rumor in my department that we're going to be moved to Bldg 5; shorter commute for me but nicer facilities)

A rather pleasant ride in this morning with my wife. I had a great night's sleep and roared in fueled by chili con carne. When I got to work, one of the contractors came around with bags of Bernard Callebault chocolates for breakfast. Yummy! Get in my belly!

Nice ride. I stopped to try and budge the segment of tree trunk that somebody had cut out of the downed tree I posted a pic of yesterday, but no use and I got coated w/ resin. Grrr...

While stopped at a red light a kid in a passing bus yelled out "Nice Bike" to me :) Made my morning. Temps are starting to return back to normal after the near record 76 yesterday.

Nice weather - very fast ride in....16.9 MPH rolling average, which is my fastest so far for the 21.5 mile ride in. With about 1 mile to go, my front derailleur stopped working. Cable slipped out, and couldn't shift the front. Also, when I got to the intersection before work, I noticed the front QR was open, and that scared me a bit. Locking it up in the garage, I tried to tighten the QR, and attempting to latch it, I heard a "crack.". Somehow, the thread for the cap nut got stripped, and wouldn't hook up.

I took the bike to Revolution Cycles in Clarendon (Arlington, VA) at lunch (Walking it onto the Metro), and they replaced the stripped cap nut and adjusted the QR. Also, they reseated the FR Der. cable, and adjusted it so that it shifted properly. 15 minutes, no charge. I was a happy guy!

Great commute today, upper 30's on the way in, 40's on the way home. Took the long way doing a couple Central Park loops.

Nice ride in. No fog. Not too many weirdos. The temps were nice: 47 - 50 degrees and I started breaking a good sweat without wearing a ton of clothes.

Holy crap! Once again HOLY bejeezers!
I had a motorist stop to criticize my rear blinkie and it was actually helpful and nicely done.
Usually my LD1000 is hanging off my saddlebag when I pick up my son from daycare in the trailer. This time I had the rack trunk with the blinkie hanging off of it. The motorist pulled next to me, got my attention, and prefaced his statement with a "I just wanted you to be aware and I am not trying to be an ahole. I can not see your blinkie with the trailer behind it". I thanked him and pulled over to relocate it to the attachment point on the back of my jacket. I think I will use this as an excuse to purchase a few more blinkies for the back of the trailer and as backups. :p
Mistakes happen. My son paying for one of mine is not something I would like to think about. Thank you nice motorist. Finally some holiday spirit!

Another great commute with full use of my lungs. Probably won't be commuting tomorrow and I have Thur/Fri off. They are calling for a huge storm with 10-20'' of the white stuff. At least will have a white Christmas.

Any of you Colorado commuters going to brave it tomorrow?

Not I. I do not see the point of working out and crashing. Then I would loose more time recovering.
I do not have a decent snow bike. Plus, the bus line that come right by my house and takes me to the new light rail line kind of spoils it for me. Going to hit the gym after work.

street ride in on Comm Ave and just as I pass BU I'm riding side by side with a hard riding, red light running Boston bike cop. I'm a stop at the lights on Comm Ave and go only when it seems clear kind of guy and I wasn't sure if he was running them because he was on a call or just pushing down the road for the exercise so I didn't exactly follow his example. I chatted him up at one of the lights he did stop at complimenting him on his speedy style and remarking that if he rides at that rate all day he'll definitely be in shape from being a bike cop. Like most bike cops I've met he seemed only too happy to be acknowledged for the extra effort that goes into being a cop on a bicycle.


the ride home I did solo on the bike path. my back tire needs air.

nothing exciting to report. i didn't get rained on.

A bit brisk this morning, 22 degrees F when I left the house. I was dressed just about right though, so I wasn't cold.

Did resolve one of the problems I was having with my water bottle this summer. I was having trouble keeping the water cold all summer, but I seem to have found a solution, as it was nice and cold all the way in this morning :lol: (including having to bite loose the frozen valve at one point).

Funny how that works. :D

Mid-20Fs for me. Nice clear sky. Some ice on the MUP but nothing hazardous. Almost no one out there this morning, pedestrian or otherwise.

14F with 10MPH headwind today. My wife bought me a set of ear bags last night, which are polartec fleece things that cover the ears. They worked great under the skull cap, and I could hear too. Dorky but effective.

Nice commute in except for the B***ch in the white corolla that tried to run me over. I gave chase long enough for her to see me in her rearview giving her a 2 handed 1 finger salute. Not really proud of my reaction, but damn...I don't feel like spending Christmas in the ICU. I did manage to maintain 34+ mph on the MTB while chasing the little car. I am kind of proud of that though.

Yesterday, I did an abbreviated commute. I had to go to a department meeting that was held at my bosses boss's house. So, yesterday I only got in 10 miles round trip. I was completely amazed at the stupidity of drivers yesterday. None of them came close to me or anything, but just how they blocked all the intersections, ran red lights, honked at people that obviously could not move, etc. I guess there's not much Christmas spirit this year for some reason.

It's starting to cool down a bit again. For a few days there I was enjoying not needing to wear my face mask, but if it gets any cooler I'm going to have to bring it along again. Other than that, another great ride. I'm really glad I replaced my chain, the other one was probably robbing 4 or 5 km/h from me!

I tried a shortcut today that didn't really end up being a shortcut. Holy crap - there was so much traffic this morning. I'll be happy when half of downtown has Friday off.

:beer:

I've seen a lot of that lately. Humbug!! ;)